Systems

Run start, room clear, death, restart - the shape everything else hangs off. A run now starts from a mission token set in the portal's cradle and comes home sealed as finished or failed. Left: a run-over screen, and a forced seed that replays a run exactly.

Enemies, weapons and rooms defined as data, so an asset pack swap is a content change and not a code change.

Arena, set pieces, decks.

Seeded room ordering and connection. Run length is a run parameter (the Short and Long roads, 3 and 7 rooms, worn in pass 36), and a room keeps the loot left on its floor (worn, pass 42). Next: a drawn order instead of an authored one, acts, and a run map that lets you travel back to any cleared room.

Hit reactions, timing windows, feedback.

Bodies that route around cover rather than strafing blind, casters that reposition instead of standing and trading, and enemies that do not shoot through each other. No pathfinding: they walk, notice they have stopped getting anywhere, measure where the wall ends, and go round it.

The real experiment: drop in a different pack and see what actually holds up.

What persists between runs, and the hub room that shows it. Start, death and restart all land here. Crafting moved to its own milestone on 2026-09-07.

The bench, the vice, the two tools, gems and runes - modifying a weapon between runs. Split out of Meta progression on 2026-09-07 once it had grown its own furniture and interaction flow, and split again on 2026-09-22 when crafting grew an economy of its own. The pry, rebuilt on 09-22, was worn and held on 09-23; what is left here is runes.

The standalone build is playable end to end, not just measurable. Distinct from Quest Link, which resolves startup ordering differently and doubles every draw distance, so a feature can work there and be dead in a build. Last worn on the device 2026-09-10; everything since (the sci-fi arena, chests, the pack, the mission hub, Nightfall, the torch, shadow pockets, the backdrop, the camera journal) has only been worn over Link.

Items that roll affixes which change what a hit does - Biting, Crushing, Mending, Staggering - plus loot rules for which weapon can roll which. All four are built and worn, and their cues were settled by pass 17: Biting and Crushing sounds chosen in an audition, the Mending flash moved into view ('great, perfect now'), Staggering turned into a real stun ('in a good place'). The crit floor wore 'about right' at 26.7% in pass 14.

Astra's Field Folio over the left shoulder, now tool storage: taken off by its handle alone, pulled open into the grid, the camera parked in its cradle, the torch hung by its hook; it levels itself and faces you when let go (worn, passes 25-45). Next: a mount for each tool, a shovel the first idea, and freeing the B button once opening the pack by hand is enough.

Chests dealt into rooms, locked until a key opens them, their tier a floor on what they pay; the lid timed to its sound, and a glow in the tier's color. Slice one is built and worn (passes 23-25). Next: bring the key to the keyhole and lift the lid by hand.

A map table in the hub dealing missions - an area plus attributes that change the run - re-dealt as an hourglass fills with rooms cleared. Built and worn (passes 29-36): the table, tokens you carry to a cradle, a portal that sleeps until one wakes it, attempts sealed on the glass, and four attributes that change the run: Warband, Nightfall, a Long and a Short road. Next: the hourglass drains and turns in front of you on arrival, a paid early turn, and a second area to reveal.

Darkness as something you play with. Nightfall's moonlit sky, darker by default on the surface (worn, passes 36-41); lamps dealt by place as lit, embers you relight, or dark (worn, passes 37-38); a torch held for a focused beam or hung on the pack for light all round, lighting what it touches, with Astra's torch and an iron cresset bought at a rack in the hub (worn, passes 39-45); pockets of loot found by torchlight and a look (worn, passes 42-43). Next: caches to open or break in place of the pockets, real darkness underground, light that follows who lives in a place, and a hand light and floodlights for sci-fi areas.

A camera you carry in the pack's cradle, pictures scored for framing (worn, passes 27-29). Worn and settled in passes 46-47: a screen on the camera's back showing each creature as a dot, bright when the shutter would take it and a hollow ring once it has counted this room; a click, a buzz and a flash on every picture; study levels from good pictures of each creature, a studied enemy dropping more loot; and a field journal in the hub listing every creature. Built, not yet worn: pictures are film until you feed the camera to an aura above the journal, film is lost if you die, and a studied enemy always drops at least one more coin. Next: weak points revealed as a reward, and the discovery fee, which has never been paid.

Tiers beyond the three archetypes. Prefixes and suffixes that grant real moves rather than bigger numbers, elites and champions. Difficulty by composition, never by health. Bosses moved to their own milestone, Acts and bosses, on 2026-09-27.

Ingredients gathered from stone, herbs and monster drops, spent at a bench to make socketables and the consumables the shop otherwise sells. Ingredients compete for carry space rather than having a menu of their own, so what you bring back is a real choice; loot is the gamble and crafting is the known outcome. Storage unlocks relieve pressure at home - a station hands vault squares back - and must never buy carry squares, or that choice erodes. Designed 2026-09-21/22, nothing built.

Smaller body slots with room for consumables, a big weapon carried on back straps by reaching over the right shoulder, vault items on display in the hallway, racks added as upgrades. Designed, not built.

An axe first, then a javelin and knives: the second combat pillar. Astra's models are delivered and vendored; none is in play yet. Vale's direction (2026-09-29): thrown weapons are equippable and socketed, so getting one back matters - a recall you perform, whose flight back can hit, and a little aim assist, never auto-aim.

A stall that sells with the pull of a lever and a reveal, then rerolling an item's affixes at the vice as a coin sink.

Runs in acts, with an elite at the midpoint and a break room, ending in bosses whose health is segmented, who retreat and change the room between phases. Split out of Enemy tiers and affixes on 2026-09-27.

Striking a head, a limb or a weapon arm does something particular. A first slice only logs which part was hit.

Found armor that changes the gauntlets you see and does one thing you can feel.

A bed of sound for each kind of room, then music.